Instead, the Rocks are riding with two other teams at the front of a rollercoaster car heading into a thrilling final weekend of the league season.

After Rock Island rallied for a 6-2 victory in the opener of Saturday's home doubleheader with Quincy, a second comeback by the Rocks came up just short in a 4-3, extra-inning nightcap.

``It's wide-open now,'' Quincy coach Randy Mettemeyer said. ``We don't even feel like we're out of it, even though we're going to have to run the table from here.''

Rock Island (20-9) remained in a three-way tie atop the Big 6 standings, with Alleman (22-7) and Galesburg (18-8) also 5-3 in Big 6 play after Saturday's league twinbills.

But, oh, what might have been for Rocky, which could have taken a one-game lead into next weekend's showdown at arch-rival Moline.

The Moliners (14-6, 4-2) are hardly out of the race, either, with a make-up date Tuesday at Quincy (9-10, 2-3).

Next Saturday, Galesburg's also at United Township (3-19, 0-7) and Quincy visits Alleman.

``This defeat does not end our season,'' Rock Island coach Andy Campbell said after the 4-3 heartbreaker. ``It just makes one of our goals a little tougher.''

Errors in the field both helped and hurt Rocky's cause in the nine-inning thriller.

Down to their last out in the seventh, the Rocks forced extra-innings when Andrew Tarnow's topped ball skipped past Quincy shortstop Kory Hollensteiner to plate Zac Simpson from third.

Cody Anderson scored Quincy's winning run after singling to open the ninth. Anderson moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Hollensteiner, then took advantage of an unguarded third, scoring when John Wagle's throw from first sailed over the head of a hustling catcher, Adam Schiltz.

``We just didn't execute one thing we've worked on in practice,'' Campbell said, about the botched bunt play. ``That's baseball. You can't get too high or too low. You just have to be ready to take the next challenge in front of you.''

The Rocks had plenty of good things happen, too.

First-game starter Bryant Loy (5-1) scattered five hits in a complete-game effort, and helped his own cause with two doubles in three plate appearances. The second two-bagger drove home two runs to knot the opener with two outs in the third.

Leading 3-2 -- thanks to a clutch, two-out, RBI single by Kirk Rylander in the fourth -- Rock Island scored three times in the sixth with Zach Norris and Derek Goetzl delivering RBI singles.

Game 2 starter Garrett George also did yeomen's work -- catching six innings of the opener, then throwing six strong innings in the nightcap. After struggling early and falling behind 3-0, George allowed just one more hit.

``I'm extremely proud of our pitchers,'' Campbell said. ``They battled. They gave us a chance to win.''

Rocky also got multi-hit games in the nightcap from Simpson (three), Goetzl (two) and Wagle (two, including a double).

Yet, despite scoring eight of their nine runs with two outs in the twinbill, the Rocks stranded 12 runners in the nightcap, and had two others cut down on the basepaths.